Waiting for the Mail | Teen Ink

Waiting for the Mail MAG

By Anonymous

     I waited for the mail today. It was hot today. It was yellow today. It was hot and yellow today.

Today was absurd. It was absurd because I was stuck. I felt stuck because I was waiting for the mail. Waiting for the mail made me feel stuck because I couldn’t get anything out of it. And so I couldn’t get out of feeling stuck.

I don’t usually wait for the mail. But I was hoping to get a letter. I was hoping to get a letter from her. I was hoping to get a letter from the woman I wrote to.

I sat on the steps like an ape. I was like an ape because I scratched my head. I was like an ape because my knees were drawn up high. I was like an ape because I glowered on the steps.

The crown of the house dampened a shadow. It dampened a pointed shadow over the steps. It dampened a pointed shadow over the green lawn. It was damp because the shade soaked up the humidity.

The letters she sent were pathetic. I knew they were pathetic. She knew they were pathetic. We wanted them to be pathetic.

The steps had railings. The railings had upright bars. The steps had a gate. The gate was at the top. The gate had upright bars too. The railings and the gate were wooden and painted white. They were blue in the shade.

At the base of the steps there was a pillar of hosta. The pillar was lengthwise. The pillar of hosta crowned the head of the green lawn. The hosta crackled when you walked in them. The hosta had pale green leaves. They had tall upright bars. The bars were thin. The hosta had blooms. The blooms were at the top of the upright bars. The blooms had slender petals. The petals were mauve and wet.

I could see the postman. I could see him down the hill. The postman was gray. The postman was damp. The postman was damp and gray.

The letters she sent were cheap. I could feel the cheapness. I could feel it in the paper. They were cheap because they didn’t mean much.

The postman sidled through the yellow heat. He had a zookeeper’s hat. He had on zookeepers’ shorts. He had on zookeepers’ kneesocks. He had a zookeeper’s frowning mustache.

The letters she sent were floral and lacy. They were floral because she wrote on floral paper. They were lacy because her handwriting was lacy.

The heat buzzed. The postman came. The heat buzzed as the postman came. The postman stood at the base of the steps.

He pulled out a wad. The wad was of envelopes. There was a pink envelope. The postman’s fingers were thick. The wad was thick. The postman handed me the thick wad with his thick fingers. The thick postman turned to go.

I looked through the thick wad. There was no letter from her.

The hosta crackled.

“Watch it, willya -”

“Yap. Sorry, yap.”

I strewed the green lawn with the wad of mail. I strewed the lawn with the wad of mail because of the absurdity of today. I did it because I was stuck.

I did it because it was hot and yellow today.

I did it because I waited for the mail today.



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This article has 8 comments.


i love this !

lizzy32 BRONZE said...
on Feb. 5 2014 at 12:36 pm
lizzy32 BRONZE, Defiance, Ohio
4 articles 0 photos 2 comments
  There was suspense in this writing.  When I first started reading it I figured you would receive a letter from the girl.   You waited all day for it, but it never came, got your hopes up wanting this letter.  You described everything in such detail, which really adds to your writing.   I never thought of a mailman wearing the same stuff a zookeeper does, but they do wear the same thing after thinking about it. 

on Aug. 13 2013 at 12:05 pm
RelativetoWriting GOLD, Brecksville, Ohio
13 articles 0 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
-Walt Whitman

Sounds like something a person from a Waldorf school would write...Spring Garden, perhaps? Nice job, Quinn!

on Aug. 13 2013 at 12:02 pm
RelativetoWriting GOLD, Brecksville, Ohio
13 articles 0 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes."
-Walt Whitman

This is a beautiful piece. You can feel the narrator's emotion in being stuck through the short, stubby sentences and repetition. Congrats! Does anyone know how to see more by this author?

on Jan. 5 2013 at 12:48 pm
In_Love_with_Writing GOLD, Easton, Pennsylvania
12 articles 0 photos 389 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13

This was mind blowing. Good job.   But check out some of my stories! Please rate them, subscribe, or comment if you can. It really means a lot and brings a smile to my face each time. Thank you so much!

on Apr. 13 2012 at 6:11 pm
Imaginedangerous PLATINUM, Riverton, Utah
31 articles 0 photos 402 comments
I love how the repetition creates a cadence. (And a mood, but mostly cadence). I found myself wanting to read it out loud. Great work.

on Dec. 31 2010 at 5:04 pm
DaydreamBeliever GOLD, Lockport, Other
15 articles 4 photos 140 comments

Favorite Quote:
If you live to be one hundred, I want to live to be one hundred minus one day, so that I'll never have to live without you. -Winnie the Pooh

I agree, it makes the reader feel stuck. you understand the emotion without any emotion being described. i love it :)

on Jul. 26 2009 at 9:20 pm
Rebecca Phifer SILVER, North Augusta, South Carolina
6 articles 0 photos 9 comments
I love the repetition and the parallelism. It makes the reader feel stuck. Perfect descripition of being stuck on a person and hurt and lonely and sad when you don't hear from them.